Citadel's 1st female dropout "miserable'

EXAMINER NEWS SERVICES

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, August 20, 1995

CHARLESTON, S.C. - She may have missed "Hell Week," but for Shannon Faulkner the next few months won't be easy.

"I have no earthly idea what I'm going to do now," Faulkner said Friday after she withdrew as the first female cadet at The Citadel. "I know that my life is going to be miserable for a while right now. . . . I'll just have to deal with it the best I can."

Faulkner, who battled death threats and constant criticism for 2-1/4 years, withdrew from the military college Friday after missing the first week of training.

An emotional Faulkner, 20, standing in a driving rainstorm, told reporters she had quit The Citadel after the pressure of the long fight became too much.

"It just seemed like everything came crashing in on me at once from the past couple years," she said, fighting back tears during an impromptu news conference. "I don't think there is any dishonor in leaving. I think there is disjustice in me staying and killing myself just for the political point."

She said she hoped her efforts would lead to more women's attending The Citadel.

"I really hope that next year a whole group of women will be going in," she said. "Because maybe it would have been different if the other women would have been with me. Maybe it would have been different if I'd have gone in a year ago or two years ago."

Faulkner, whose case had become a flash point in the national debate over women's rights and equality, had became ill in intense heat of more than 100 degrees Monday on the first day of "Hell Week," the first week of military training for incoming Citadel cadets - known as

"knobs" for their shaved heads.

She missed the swearing-in ceremony Monday night because of her illness and spent the rest of the week in the school's infirmary, except for a brief visit to a local hospital.

She had made history after a lengthy and expensive legal battle by winning permission to become the first female member of the 152-year-old school's corps of cadets.

Faulkner began her legal quest for admission to The Citadel in March 1993, charging the previously all-male school with sex discrimination when it rescinded her acceptance after learning she was female.

Her attorneys had argued a state-funded school should not be allowed to exclude women. The Citadel receives a quarter of its funding from the state of South Carolina, with the remainder coming from tuition and private donations.

Citadel cadets cheered, honked car horns and did push-ups in the rain to celebrate Faulkner's decision to withdraw.

"This is a great day to be an American!" shouted one cadet from a third-floor window of the white-walled barracks where Faulkner had stayed only two nights.

"It's a cleansing day for The Citadel," said Sallie Baldwin, former president of Women in Support of The Citadel. Her group raised money to help pay the college's legal expenses by selling bumper stickers reading "Save the Males."

At the barracks where the school spent $25,000 to create a private room and bathroom for Faulkner, cadets did push-ups on the red and gray checkerboard courtyard in the driving rain.

"It's just guys celebrating," said Ken Dieffenbach, second in command of the approximately 2,000 members of the corps. "It's unfortunate for her, but it keeps this place the way we always wanted it."

Faulkner defended her decision to leave the school, telling reporters her court fight to gain entry to the college, not physical conditioning, had made her continued enrollment "really difficult."

"I was keeping up with everyone and was doing well," she said. "I was handling the corps.

"This is my personal health I have to worry about now. It's not going to do my attorneys any good if I get in here and just have a mental breakdown."

Citadel officials had cited Faulkner's physical conditioning in a last-ditch effort to keep her from joining the cadet corps.&lt;